Why do Muslim Women Wear Hijab – Importance of Hijab in Islam

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Why do Muslim Women Wear Hijab?
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World Hijab Day

• Nazma Khan, who immigrated to the United States
  from Bangladesh at age 11, faced years of shaming
  over wearing a headscarf in New York.
• So, in 2013, she started World Hijab Day a day
  for both Muslim and non-Muslim women to
  experience wearing a headscarf.
• Celebrated on Feb. 1, the day is an expression of
  solidarity and support for religious freedom.

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• As a scholar of Muslim immigrants, I have also
  long argued for womens right to religious
  expression in their clothing choices. The hijab
  is not simply about religion women wear it for
  a variety of reasons that can change, depending
  on the time and social context.
• Is the veil an Islamic requirement?
• Muslim religious writings are not entirely clear
  on the question of veiling.
• Various passages in the Quran, the Muslim holy
  book, and the Hadiths, statements attributed to
  the Prophet Mohammad, make reference to veiling
  by the prophets wives. But scholars disagree
  about whether these statements apply only to the
  prophets wives or to all Muslim women.

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• According to some, the veil has been used as a
  way of curbing male sexual desire. Yet covering
  the head and body predated Islam. Jewish,
  Christian and Hindu women have also covered their
  head at various times in history and in different
  parts of the world.
• Certainly, the headscarf is tied to religion.
  Many women who cover talk about it as a way
  demonstrating their submission to God and a
  constant reminder to hold fast to Islamic beliefs
  such as being honest and generous to those in
  need.
• Asserting identity
• However, there are other reasons for adopting the
  hijab.

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• French and British colonizers encouraged Muslim
  women to remove the veil and emulate European
  women. Consequently, in North African and Middle
  Eastern countries, the veil became a symbol of
  national identity and opposition to the West
  during independence and nationalist movements.
• Today, some women wear the hijab to signal pride
  in their ethnic identity. This is more so for
  immigrants in Europe and the United States, where
  there has been an increase in Islamophobia.
• In a Facebook post for World Hijab Day 2018 that
  went viral, Columbia College student Toqa Badran
  wrote,
• I wear this scarf because when I was a child I
  was socialized to be embarrassed, even ashamed,
  of my religion and my culture. I was told that to
  be a Muslim was to be a terrorist and that to be
  outwardly Muslim was to endorse violence and
  oppression I understood that I would be
  unwelcome as long as I wore symbols of my
  heritage and chose to, in however modern a way,
  embrace my ancestors.
• Muslim African-American women in the U.S.
  sometimes wear a hijab to signal their religious
  affiliation. They also want to dispel the
  assumption that all African-Americans are
  Christians, and that only people with origins
  abroad can be Muslim. In fact, 13 percent of
  adult Muslims in the U.S are black Americans born
  in the country.

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Different reasons for wearing a hijab

• For many other women, the headscarf has become a
  means of resistance to standards of feminine
  beauty that demand more exposure. Proponents of
  this view argue that removing clothing for the
  benefit of the male gaze does not equal
  liberation.
• According to researchers, women in hijab note
  that employers must interact with them based on
  their qualifications rather than their appearance
  and that, therefore, the hijab levels the playing
  field. In Western countries, however, women find
  that wearing a head covering makes it harder to
  get hired.

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• Finally, for some women, the headscarf is a
  convenience. It can reduce comments from others
  about women being out in public and lessen
  incidents of harassment on the street and at
  work.
• Despite the multiple, complicated reasons behind
  wearing a hijab, there are those who routinely
  assert that women who wear a headscarf are
  necessarily oppressed.
• Examples of hijab-wearing women in the
  government, such as newly elected Congresswoman
  Ilhan Omar, or athletes such as Olympian fencer
  Ibtihaj Muhammad, may help dispel these
  stereotypes.